Rossano Brazzi

• Born: Sep 18, 1916 in Bologna, Italy
• Died: Dec 24, 1994 in Rome, Italy
• Occupation: Actor, Director
• Active: '40s-'80s
• Major Genres: Drama, Adventure
• Career Highlights: South Pacific, The Barefoot Contessa, Aquila Nera
• First Major Screen Credit: La Tosca (1940)

Biography

Bologna-born Rosanno Brazzi abandoned his law studies at San Marco University when his parents were killed by fascists. Becoming an actor, Brazzi rapidly rose to matinee-idol status after his film debut in 1939; but while making faces before the Mussolini-controlled cameras by day, he was tirelessly active in the Resistance by night. He made his first Hollywood film, Little Women, in 1949, but it was his multi-hued portrayal of the impotent Count Vincenzo Toriato-Faurini in The Barefoot Contessa (1954) that won him international stardom. He went on to play such suave Europeans as Renato di Rossi in Summertime (1955) and Emile DeBecque in South Pacific (1958), after which his film roles tended to become routine and repetitive. An occasional visitor to television after his first small-screen appearance on a 1960 episode of The June Allyson Show, Brazzi was a regular on the Harold Robbins-created series The Survivors (1969), playing Onassis clone Antaeus Riakos. Turning to directing in the mid-1960s (sometimes under the nom de film of Edward Ross), Brazzi's best-known effort in this capacity was the modest family-oriented film The Christmas That Almost Wasn't (1966). From 1940 to 1981, Rosanno Brazzi was the husband of actress Lidia Bartalini; after her death, he married another actress, Ilse Fischer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Heroes Die Hard Buy this Movie	The Third Solution Buy this Movie	Christopher Columbus Buy this Movie	Seven Hyden Park Buy this Movie
The Far Pavilions Buy this Movie	Fear City Buy this Movie	Final Justice Buy this Movie	The Final Conflict Buy this Movie

Show More Movies Show Fewer Movies

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)